We're living in the age of artificial intelligence, or AI, where even ultra -short dramas are getting swept into the mix.
Now, entire series, everything from the visuals to the plot twists are crafted by AI.
Could feature films be next?
Is the future of entertainment already in AI's hands?
And we're on a mission of starting your week with a motivational kick.
Our Motivational Monday offerings will get you ready to tackle the week.
Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm He Young. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Shen in the studio, first on today's show.
Ultra -short dramas with their bite -sized episodes, fast -paced and over -the -top storylines are taking over short video platforms, both at home and abroad.
And now, thanks to AI, everything from the visuals to the voiceovers, even the plot can be AI -generated.
So, theoretically, what used to take a whole team of professionals, scriptwriters, animators, lightning crews, actors, and so on, can now be handled by just one person with AI at hand.
But what does this mean for the industry and its viewers?
Yu Shen, let's go to you first.
What AI -generated ultra -short shows are grabbing eyeballs?
Yeah, so basically we know the short video platforms, Douyin and Kuai Sho, both launched two AI -generated ultra -short dramas.
And Douyin and Kuai Sho are the two giants in China's short video market.
So these are apps that you download onto your device.
Smartphone. Yeah. And then specifically for short videos?
Okay, got it. And then you can watch these kind of ultra -short dramas on these platforms.
And they're basically, they're as huge as taking up 54 % of the whole market share of the short video platforms.
And also, more specifically, when we're talking about these two ultra -short dramas, Kuai Socials, The Mirror of Mountains and Seas Breaking Waves, or in Chinese, Shanhai Qi Jingzhu, Pi Bo Ja Long, while it sounds very fascinating, is a new 5 episode ultra -short drama with each episode running just 3
minutes. And this is a drama with protagonist, a setting, a story showcasing many unique and rare creatures.
And every element from the script and the dialogue to the storyboard and the special effects and the soundtrack, even the soundtrack was crafted by advanced AI.
This is really an amazing thing that AI is able to accomplish.
Positives and negatives I think we'll probably get into it a little bit, but simply based on the fact that they can do it, they can create everything now using AI, it's pretty impressive.
Also, both of you have had a quick look on these short videos, ultra shorts because they're shorter than the short videos, are they any good?
The trailers are almost as long as the episodes.
Yeah, actually yes.
I watched the trailer for The Mirror of Mountains and Seas Breaking Waves, and it's really cool.
For a moment in the trailer, I felt like from a Western perspective, if you will, I felt like I was watching the trailer for Avatar a little bit minus the live action element of it.
Because the people in the trailer, my goodness, they looked, I mean, I thought I was looking at a human being, but it's not.
It's an AI generated character, and the whole thing is just really impressive.
The way it looks, it's aesthetically pleasing, it's exciting, you have monsters and people in there, it's all really cool looking.
Yeah, also, and the other one that we were talking about was the Douying, also cooperated with Buona Film Group, which is a top distributor and producer in China.
They actually also released this Senxin Dui Revolution of the Future, or Senxin Dui Weilai Chi Shulu.
It is a historical, cultural, relic site, and that the whole story is about reflecting a bunch of rare creatures and everything.
I also watched some of these trailers.
So, actually, I think it's quite stunning, you know, by the fact that all of these creatures and the special effects that they get.
And I also think it inherits some of the characteristics of short videos, because they can always grab your eyes by using all of these words or these special effects.
One video title is, a young boy sets sail and finds a mysterious wonderland only to unwittingly invite disasters.
By looking at this title, I was clicking in and watching it.
Yeah, you're right.
Visually, they are quite stunning.
We talked about the soundtrack, too.
The AI does the soundtrack.
It sounds really cool.
The soundscape is impressive, too.
Right, and let's just give everybody a better understanding of the ultra -short drama that is center stage here.
And how is that different from the short video platforms and offerings that I suppose, unless you're disconnected to the Internet, then everybody should know.
So, I think the big difference is at the word drama, right?
We watch all of these dramas with the same story lines, the plots.
While when we were watching just some of these short videos, it is just a simple and single video.
Yeah, they are standalone, for the most part, right?
But these ultra -short dramas, yeah, they're very short, a couple of minutes in length, and the difference, I guess, comparing them to other short videos is that they have episodes, right?
It's a continuing story line, and the episodes can vary from short drama to short drama.
Sometimes you can find them in the dozens, but sometimes there can be over a hundred episodes.
Yes. So, that would be a big difference, too.
Right, and ultra -short dramas have been all the rage in the video world in the last couple of years.
I remember when we first talked about it on our show, we were all astounded by how cheesy the title, as well as the content can be, such as, my domineering husband happens to be a billionaire at the same time, and he's also very good -looking and treats me really well.
So, stuff like that.
But now, a couple of years later, tell us how popular it's been, and has this become sort of one of the staples of our short video feeds?
I think, with all of these developments, we kind of had that kind of impression on ultra -short back then, because, as Koyuan Yu said, maybe when we're talking about ultra -short, we're thinking of all of these cheesy plots, with all of these werewolves and vampires, but this one that we're going to talk
about, the AI -generated ultra -short dramas, I think they mainly have the concept of short, but they are more or less these kind of plot -led mysterious stories.
And also, when we are seeing the stats of how popular these ultra -short videos could be, according to a new report published by the China Internet Network Information Center, which is a government -affiliated research institute.
China's number of internet users grew to nearly 1 .1 billion in the first half of 2024, while more than 50 percent of Chinese internet users had watched an ultra -short dramas, which is about 500 million.
That's a lot of people tuning into these shows.
I was reading a snippet of an interview from a man who had worked in the Chinese entertainment industry for a long time, and he was talking about how, perhaps when these plotlines began, you had stories like time travel, you had stories about the transformation of an ordinary and timid man who suddenly has grown
into some big strong man or seeking revenge and becoming a business tycoon.
All of these typical plot lines that existed in the past, with AI now, the directors and the producers, they don't need to follow those typical plotlines anymore, because with AI, the creators, I mean, the sky is the limit.
There are really no rules.
They can create whatever type of story they want to, and I think that probably adds to the popularity of them as well.
Also, just a quick question for you, Steve.
You're our in -house international observer, I suppose.
So, is Ultra Short something that you'd see on TikTok or in a global video sphere?
I think it's a new realm, something that didn't really exist before, but this idea of short videos is becoming popular in the United States.
Real short, have you heard of it before?
I downloaded it onto my phone earlier today, as a matter of fact, and I was trying - Have you watched some of these series?
I couldn't get it to connect right away, so I was going to check it out a little bit later.
But real short, which is a Chinese short drama application, it outperformed TikTok in downloads across the United States last November.
It amassed about 19 million global downloads across all different platforms in 2023, and it made a lot of money too.
It made over 22 million in revenue, so that answers your question.
This is becoming a global thing.
This is one of those new territories where we could see more growth and a lot of people are excited to get on board, so to speak.
How does AI craft Ultra Shorts?
What are the benefits of AI in this creation process?
I think the first one I can think of is the efficiency that these AI can bring to the producers of all of these Ultra Short videos, or dramas.
Content that is difficult to film in the real world can be more easily achieved through these AI GCs, such as science fiction or ancient mythology, because we can see the examples that we listed above, or previously, are these kind of mysterious creatures that you can never imagine with all of these
wings and superpowers.
With the power of AI, then we can see it is easily to showcase just by clicking in some prompt words or prompt sentences, and then you can have all of these marvelous scenes.
That's one. Creativity, right?
At the fingertips of the creators, but there's other benefits as well.
Cheng Khun, if I'm pronouncing that name correctly, he was the producer in charge of the drama that we're talking about.
And this is his quote, featuring grand battle scenes that required extensive rendering and special effects.
AI slashed our production time and cost by more than 75 percent.
And what used to take up to six months, we accomplished in just two.
So the creators can save a whole lot of time in the studio and they can save a whole lot of money as well.
And also just think of this as a viewer and as a creator.
Now, I suppose for viewers, you can become creators.
It's almost like this is great because anyone can now express their creativity visually, breaking down barriers and making storytelling more accessible to anyone.
What used to be only trained professionals can do is something now you can produce.
If you have a good story in your mind or even if you want some inspiration from AI to get a good storyline, you can do that.
But of course, on the flip side, this is going to have an impact big or super big on those industry practitioners, those who are already working in the film short video, long video industry.
So do you think that AI can truly replace human professionals in writing scripts, creating visuals and the whole shebang of video making?
Yeah, there is a lot of criticism about AI in the entertainment industry already.
Critics will will argue that the content generated by AI, it doesn't have that, how shall we say, emotional depth or the subtle details of traditional filmmaking as well.
The visual effects, they say, can sometimes feel quite cold, quite mechanical at times too.
Suspension of disbelief, if you're familiar with that term, that when you're watching a movie, you get so so into it that you forget that you're watching a movie.
But with AI created content, it's always at the forefront of your mind or you get reminded sometimes, oh, yeah, right.
This was created by AI.
And that's one of the criticisms.
Yes. And also, I think I saw some of the comments on these kind of videos saying that scenes and visuals may often maybe often disjointed and lacking realism.
Critics also say that they look like PowerPoint animation.
They just like, you know, yeah, they they're pictures, but they're moving.
It's more likely how AI can generate because of course, they are very astonishing.
But when we are seeing all of these expressions or more specifically a human emotion, I think that could be very hard for AI to actually generate a really, you know, live action of a human.
Which is why AI is unlikely to fully fully replace actors, human performers.
We talked about the emotional aspect of film and shows and acting, the expressions, the improvisation, the creative interaction.
That's still something that AI struggles to replicate.
Well, but also we've seen some of the demo videos out there which show it can be visually striking what AI can do and also it feels like it's just a matter of time before it gets better.
And also I'd like to sort of direct our attention a little bit more towards the creative process.
Now with these ultra short videos, apparently one talking point is that a lot of these stories are developed by AI.
So it's not like you've got a scriptwriter spending days thinking about, oh, how should this story develop now?
That's all AI too. And by the look of it, people are are really protesting saying this is not very good.
It aren't doing that.
It's still computer generated content though.
Do you remember a few, was it a few years ago now when we saw paintings that were created by AI?
They were good, but it didn't really grab on because people still like to know that art was created by other human beings.
There's an extra level of enjoyment there.
And if the art is created, paintings or music, AI can create music now as well, do people still enjoy it as much?
I would argue no, no, they probably don't.
These short dramas are really cool.
It's a new thing that everybody is getting really excited about.
But are we simply going to get rid of all human directors and actors and things like this?
I don't see that coming in the future.
Yeah. And also, I think it is a kind of common issue that may appear when AI is getting into some creative field.
When we are seeing how AI is generating these content, of course, they are still producing by the content that human fed them.
So basically they are still giving you the content that you actually have and then they are not originally creating something, but they are just collapsing everything and then rearrange these things.
So I think that is the results that people may get and maybe from time to time or after a period of time, then human may get tired of all of the content that they have already seen.
I like to sort of support or offer a footnote to what, Steve, you mentioned just now about.
I think it's an interesting concept that how much effort is put into art or the work actually affects the viewer or the receiver of it.
There's something about art that means that human beings are more affected.
The more effort that they know has gone into things.
For example, if I were to show you a statue of Rodin's The Kiss, knowing that it was sculpted over time, well, what time and who did it, you'd be more moved by it than if it were cut out by a laser blade by a computer, an AI.
And even if it was just exactly the same sculpture, true human effort, I think, still moves us on a different level.
And that's something that I still sort of cherish and I hold on to this thought because I think it's true now.
But in the future, actually, I would like it to be true.
But I don't know, especially nowadays with these videos, we know that they're AI generated.
And then I suppose it can't fool the human eye.
But in the future, let's say and I have my gut feeling tells me that this is going to happen.
We're going to increasingly come over across videos, these products that doesn't label it's AI generated.
And then if it gets much better and it will probably it will.
It's getting better every month by the day.
By the sound of it, then how are we going to receive and conceive these things that actually reminds me of a point that I when I was watching one of these trailers of the ultra short AI generated ultra short videos.
So the first shot of this trailer I saw for an AI generated features a big city that feels like a real existing urban landscape.
And it has many familiar elements like the skyscrapers, but you can't quite tell which city it is.
It's just so real, but you cannot tell.
So is that a good thing or when we're discussing something like could could it be just more realistic the better or we should know that it is AI generated?
Do we even need it to be ultra realistic?
I'm thinking of cartoons right now, children's cartoons or animated series like The Simpsons, for example, we know it's not real.
Homer Simpson is not a real person and we're OK with that.
The Simpsons has been on air for decades and we like it.
But we don't we don't need it to be ultra real.
So we're headed in the direction of AI created content and it seems like the creators want to convince us.
Oh, look how realistic this is.
Wow. Look how realistic this is.
But I'm not sure that that's something that people want or need for their entertainment value.
That's a very good point.
And also maybe this is why that we see AI is most used in these ultra short videos with the with the themes of pretty fanatical fanatical content.
So we're talking about, you know, all these like fantasy stories and when it's really difficult to sort of create, you know, use all that computer rendering or or create a set to to tell these almost like methodological stories.
So but so this area, AI is great.
But if it's ultra real, then, you know, it's still really easy to tell.
OK, that doesn't work.
That's AI. That's computer.
That's not not human beings.
But if I may make a slightly snarky comment on what you shouldn't alluded to just now about all the cities look the same in these videos, one could argue that just go to any second tier Chinese city or these cities that have been developed in the last 10, 20 years, you could argue that they look the same.
They're generic. And because, you know, with this fast development of cities and then, you know, having that character, having that something special sauce to your place, that becomes increasingly difficult to spot as well.
And this may offer urban planners to think about this again.
Maybe AI will be creating our cities in the future.
Oh, yeah. You know, AI isn't new.
It's not only in front of the camera where we see it.
It's behind the camera as well.
It's being used in so many different areas in Hollywood, for example.
It's being used in pre -production.
And some of these are just such such a good use of AI.
In pre -production, the algorithms can analyze scripts and then they can provide insights on various aspects like location scouting, for example, or costume choices or set designs.
The AI can assist directors in that.
IDMs, Watson, AI, for example, was used in the production of the movie Morgan.
I'm not sure if you know that or not.
But anyway, it analyzed thousands of horror movie trailers to generate a trailer for the film.
And the reason they use the AI algorithm for that is because it would grab all the key elements that really resonated with audiences to create a perfect trailer for a film.
That's a really smart use of AI too.
And when we're talking about, you know, AI's impact on people's jobs and, you know, those who are actually working in this profession today, we're talking about video entertainment as such.
But I well, I have a little bit of an ambivalent feeling towards this because to some extent, I think AI can can do so much and it can replace a lot of jobs in the sense that most people don't necessarily need, let's say, Bordeaux vintage wines from the year 2000, which happened to be a very good year
for wine production in France, we are probably happy enough for most of us when we're waiting to get into the subway or sitting on the toilet bowl or whatever case scenario you're in watching these videos that we just want like a can of ice coke, so to speak.
So that mediocre run of the mill, pretty fancy to the eye at first glance stuff is good enough.
And then and then maybe so maybe there is plenty of room for this kind of AI generated content in the market.
Yeah. What if they had said when they had black and white TV, this is good enough.
What if before the wheel they said this is good enough.
We don't need we don't need to roll things.
We don't need cars.
What if the Wright brothers said, you know, being on the ground is good enough.
We wouldn't be flying now.
So we're always pushing forward as human beings.
And how far will this go?
We don't know just yet.
Right. And my worry here is that mediocre stuff generated by AI, which is pretty much the same option that will flood the market.
And for the really hardworking painstakingly difficult stuff that people put their soul and heart into.
Will there still be a place for them to make money and survive?
